May floats Brexit backstop ‘review mechanism’ in call with Varadkar

LONDON — Theresa May discussed the possibility of a "review mechanism" for the part of the Brexit agreement designed to protect the soft border in Ireland with her Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar this morning, in a phone call requested by Downing Street to update Dublin.

According to an account of the call provided by the Irish prime minister's office, Varadkar "indicated an openness" to the proposal but insisted the outcome of any such process must not be a "unilateral decision to end the backstop," a legally-binding guarantee that, whatever the outcome of future trade negotiations between the U.K. and the EU, a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will not be required.

The call came amid reports that May's Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab is pushing for the backstop arrangement to have a break clause that could limit it to just three months. Raab is also pushing for the U.K. to have the unilateral ability to end the backstop arrangement.

Brexit negotiations are still stuck on the issue of the backstop. The U.K. insists any backstop arrangement agreed between the two sides must not be indefinite, but Dublin and the EU have refused to accept a backstop with a time limit. Therefore, the two sides are seeking what the U.K. government has described as a "mechanism" for ending the backstop should that be required.

Varadkar's insistence makes it clear Dublin will not accept that this mechanism can be unilaterally triggered by the U.K., as Raab wants.

The statement from the Irish government's department of the Taoiseach read: "Both leaders emphasized their commitment to avoiding a hard border and the need for a legally operable backstop.

"The prime minister raised the possibility of a review mechanism for the backstop. The Taoiseach indicated an openness to consider proposals for a review, provided that it was clear that the outcome of any such review could not involve a unilateral decision to end the backstop. He recalled the prior commitments made that the backstop must apply ‘unless and until’ alternative arrangements are agreed," the statement read.

In a second statement to U.K. journalists, No. 10 Downing Street said: "[The leaders] agreed that the intention was that the backstop should only be a temporary arrangement and that the best solution to the Northern Ireland border would be found by agreeing a future relationship between the U.K. and the EU. In order to ensure that the backstop, if ever needed, would be temporary, the prime minister said that there would need to be a mechanism through which the backstop could be brought to an end."